Community Digest

Pico Rivera

The Pico Rivera United Methodist Church will mark its second anniversary of providing sanctuary for Central American refugees with a special service Sunday.

The 10 a.m. church service will be followed by testimony from refugees who have fled their war-torn country and from members of the church's sanctuary committee. Food and music also will be featured.

The church, 6440 S. Paramount Blvd., declared itself a sanctuary on March 24, 1983, the third anniversary of the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed while presiding at the altar of his church in El Salvador in 1980.

Since then, the congregation has helped 29 families at the risk of fines and imprisonment for aiding undocumented immigrants.